A Fleet without a Rudder (The U.S. Navy's optimized fleet response plan is failing. It is redeploying ships on short notice for no apparent strategic purpose.)

The United States Naval Institute ^ | October, 2020 | LTJG Artem Sherbinin, U.S. Navy

[lewislynn]

Wasn’t the whole reason for your 206 days at sea because someone tested positive?

[dsc]

“Women do just fine.”

I’m not even going to argue it with you. I just hope I’m not around to see what happens when we actually go to war with a significant enemy.

[KC_Lion]

I'm in the red shirt.

I see you!

Three and half acers of America, anywhere in the world.

What a beautiful Ship.

Is not having a port of call for so many days really hard on the crew? Or I suppose those Beer days help. :)

[Carriage Hill]

What about the Subs?

[Drew68]

Wasn’t the whole reason for your 206 days at sea because someone tested positive?

No. It was a direct result of what happened on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. At the time, the outbreak was blamed on a port visit to Vietnam. After that, port calls fleet-wide were cancelled out of an abundance of caution.

[31R1O]

It happened to the Army too after the reduction to 10 divisions. I may have had issues with General Shinseki but he was correct to address this with Donald Rumsfeld.

[5th MEB]

215 days at sea and looks like it should be in the junkyard, those sailors on board that floating wreck have my sympathies.

I may just be a dumb old Marine but I know that when you see your HOME looking like it’s been through a riot you are not a happy camper.

When I did Sea Duty the SHIP became my home, my fellow Marines and all the Squids on board took pride in OUR SHIP.

That poor baby needs about 6 months in the dry dock and some serious love and care.

5th MEB

[PIF]

Here's what ships look like after they spend too long at sea without needed maintenance

This is the result of the need for expensive toys that are always over-budget and need years of work before they can perform any mission or are combat survivable:
Littoral Comabt Ships (LCS) sent to the scrapper;
DDG-1000 has no mission no weapons but are building 4 more;
CVN Ford $13 billion spent and the radar has been ripped out; the toilet plumbing leaks badly - but the sinks have granite tops;
the EMALS system barely works and cannot do standard combat sortie rates - and has been relegated to status as training ship - but they are building 3 more.

Then there is the need to have the latest and greatest bridge controls that only a skilled long time video gamer could work in a timely manner.

A huge amount from consecutive Navy budgets when toward the purchase of F-35Bs and Cs with the unexpected need to re-plate landing decks for the Cs - and it just goes on with this less than well thought out planned direction. Rudderless and leaderless but they do go to some swell DC parties.

[CaptainMorgantown]

“A traditional deployment cycle has ships deploying once for 180 days in a three-year period.”

I never served in the Navy, but it seems to me that this article is arguing that our ships should be deployed only 1/6 of the time. I believe we have 11 carrier groups, so following this suggested deployment cycle would mean that we only have at most 2 carriers deployed at any given time.

I know that we have to allow time for maintenance, training and shore leave for our sailors. Perhaps there are shorter tours where the carrier is at sea for a few weeks at a time near a home port, but ready to quickly to deploy to forward position.

Somehow the expectation that our ships should be deployed only 180 days out of 3 year period seems unreasonably low to me.

Maybe freepers with experience in the Navy could educate me.

[GreyHoundSailor]

Or a new blue camo uniform so anybody going overboard blends in with the sea.

[Mariner]

LTJG Artem Sherbinin (O2) will never make Commander, much less Captain or Admiral.

Our navy is able to sustain heightened presence when required. It’s always been that way.

Of course, there’s a price to pay.

This man is not command material.

[11th_VA]

My nephew just got out (USS Lincoln). They were pulling 16 hours days for months prior to deployment.

[Drew68]

I just hope I’m not around to see what happens when we actually go to war with a significant enemy.

It won't matter. The great sea battles of the past; Leyte Gulf, Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, Jutland, battles where men in ships slugged it out with each other won't be fought in the future.

War with a significant enemy will start nuclear right from the get-go, probably by us. Carriers will be obliterated by single weapons traveling at hypersonic speeds that we never saw coming. Women (and children) will die by the millions. It won't make any difference if they're wearing a uniform or not.

[AndyJackson]

Obama totally #’d the military.

Sure, but the real cause is Bush and his wars in the Middle East. It was a strategic distraction to our main system of true alliances. Sure with the collapse of the Soviet Union the alliances were no long under stress - until the rise of China, but that is no excuse for wasting what now turns out to be scarce resources to no avail.

[DesertRhino]

Well, you can’t leave them in port or BLM sailors will torch them like the USS Bonhomme Richard.
Anyway, watch the girl sailors all get pregnant right away.

[Drew68]

Or a new blue camo uniform so anybody going overboard blends in with the sea.

The "Hide in the Sea" Type I working uniform was mercifully retired a few years ago. They were never authorized to be worn underway anyways due to their lack of fire retardation. (However, when the Navy partners with Hollywood to make a movie or TV show, working uniforms are required to be worn by cast members).

Underway, sailors typically wear a pair of dark blue coveralls or a flight deck uniform consisting of a pair of cargo pants and a specifically colored turtleneck jersey. Pilots, of course, wear the same type of flight suit they've worn since Vietnam and the special warfare guys have their own camo gear.

[RetiredTexasVet]

The Navy has at least one “Officer” left .... the LTJG that wrote the article ... soon to be drawn and quartered.

[Chode]

100%... they were hung out because of the China flu

[The Klingon]

I was a Cold War sailor, the deployments were scheduled for 180 but only one of my six deployments were that short. Longest Was 11.5 months (Desert Storm). The Navy’s issues revolve around recovering from 10 years of neglect....they will recover..this is cyclical .

[Drew68]

LTJG Artem Sherbinin (O2) will never make Commander, much less Captain or Admiral.

He probably knew he was committing career suicide the moment he attached his name to this article.

Our navy is able to sustain heightened presence when required. It’s always been that way.

I remember deploying when we were engaged in combat operations over Iraq and Afghanistan, dropping actual no-sh*t bombs on the enemy. We still managed a port call every 3-4 weeks. We did seven month deployments. COMPTUEX had a port visit in Ft. Lauderdale and we went home for a month or so after to rest before the long cruise. After a seven month deployment, we went home, remained combat-ready in a "surge" phase for a couple of months, and then entered a slower-tempo maintenance phase for the next couple of years until the next operational "workup" cycle started anew again.

It's not like that today. Deployments are longer. In-between maintenance cycles are shorter. Port visits are gone (real port visits, not "beer on the pier" in Duqm, Oman). And we're not dropping bombs on anyone. Sailors are "ROM"ming pier side for 3 weeks due to Covid, calling their families from their cell phones, and then getting underway for a 4-5 week long COMPTUEX training exercise. Deployment then starts immediately thereafter without a pause. The ship turns towards the open sea and steams ahead.